He joked that it got down to a vote and Terry Donilon - the cardinal’s communications director and brother of White House National Security Adviser Tom - “said something wrong.”

“We could have had an American Irish Catholic Pope but we would have shared him with you,” Biden told the Irish delegation gathered in his residence.

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny was in attendance as were Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, and Vicki Kennedy, widow of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. The breakfast had been scheduled to take place Tuesday but was postponed because of Biden's trip to Rome to attend the papal investiture.